CHAPTER XIX. 



REARING THE CHICKS. 



For the first few years little difficulty was experienced 

 in rearing the chicks ; the principal art consisted in 

 giving them plenty to eat. Our instructions supplied 

 with the incubators used to be : — 



" Send them out with a boy the second day after 

 hatching, if the weather is fine, and put them where 

 they are sheltered from the wind and there is a good 

 supply of gravel. The third day they will pick up 

 gravel, and when they have filled the gizzard on the 

 fourth day, they will eat any soft green food, with which 

 they should be supplied as much as they will eat, lucerne 

 cut up fine being the best. They should have water 

 once a day, but it must not be brack. Return them to 

 the incubator at night till a month old, or if there are 

 too many for the machine, after a few days they can be 

 put in boxes, lying on sacks or straw, and the boxes 

 covered over, leaving a small air-hole. If too hot they 

 will stand up with their mouths open and wings out. 

 They should be freely supplied with crushed bones. The 

 third and fourth day they will eat the dung of any 



